Odd twist to campaign treasurer scandal

The scandal involving one of California’s top Democratic political operatives – Burbank-based campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee – keeps expanding. Rep. Susan Davis of San Diego and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have become the latest politicians to say Durkee appears to have embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars or more from their campaign accounts, and Davis said Durkee “may well become known as the Bernie Madoff of campaign finance treasurers” in a weekend letter to her supporters.

But in an odd twist, The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that it raised pointed questions about another scandal involving Durkee back in 2007 that should have prompted much more scrutiny of Durkee than it apparently did. Durkee was the treasurer for a group called Californians for Obama that took money from thousands of Californians without ever using it to the support the then-presidential candidate. The ploy was elaborate, including offering a Carnival cruise to Mexico with prominent Obama supporters aboard “subject to availability.”

It was also legal; independent campaign groups can raise money for causes or candidates without follow-through, the Chronicle reported. But it’s hard to understand why this cynical, calculated deception didn’t raise eyebrows among Durkee’s dozens of Democratic clients.